From investment manager to coaching investment managers

Thursday 16 March 2017

There’s probably no one better qualified to oversee our Value of the Investment Profession programme than Jane Coffey.

A former head of equities and fund manager, who now has a new career coaching executives, also finds herself facilitating the work of four sub-committees and almost 40 individuals in finding solutions to some of the biggest problems affecting our profession at the moment.

That’s not to say she doesn’t give her own opinions during the discussions – as an economics graduate, she says she finds the details behind topics such as capital allocation fascinating. But it has also been a very useful way to learn about how the profession is embedding stewardship and how that is evolving from the wide range of participants.

“It’s a really interesting exercise in that we have people from a broad range of firms with a broad range of roles,” she says.” I was always aware of the importance of stewardship and ESG and how it affected the economy but I’ve learnt a lot more recently about how integrating this into every investment decision makes so much sense.”

Overall though, the most important outcome for the project is that we improve the perception of the industry, and that’s for one very good reason:

“If our reputation as investment managers isn’t up to scratch it will actually stop people saving and investing and that has huge implications for all of us” she says. “On the other hand, if we improve our reputation more people will invest money and get the returns they need for their future.”